That's right. I HAVE INVENTED A TAG. MWAAAAHAHAHA.

Ehem.

This is my fiftieth post here on Stan, so I felt like I should celebrate. Fifty posts is a LOT. And It's been almost a year since Stan was born to the Blog-o-sphere, and well ... *sniffles*

GETTIN' ALL EMOTIONAL HERE. DON'T MIND ME.

Ehem. As I was saying in very clear, understandable writing, I have composed a tag for you all.

Inspiration fascinates me. It's such a fleeting thing, and very difficult to find. And since we bloggers are all lovely, creative people, I thought it might be interesting to see just what kinds of things inspire us.

So. Here's how this is going to work. (AKA. Here are the rulz)

1. Copy these totally amazing and spectacular rules onto your post
2. Smile and twirl in a circle and look at your favorite inspiring thing and take deep breaths as you prepare for my amazingness
3. Thank your gorgeous, lovely tagger (*flips hair* which would be me, in this case. Look at me, being all pushy and demanding your gratitude)
4. Tag five other bloggers (or more. or less. or none. just whatever you want.)
5. Have fun and be honest and answer alll da questions (and feel free to add some of your own!)

The rules are really just guidelines, as the pirates say. XP Feel free to spread your wings and be free little pumpkin nuggets.

And now for the questions!



There are so many things that inspire me. But I'll list two: sunsets are my favorite (not sunrises. they're too early in the morning.) They put me in this "oh-my-goose-the-world-is-so-big-and-complex-and-I-am-such-a-small-human-what-am-I-even-doing-with-my-life" moods, which open me up to lots of big questions.

As for bookish inspiration, I find that words inspire me a lot. Phrases that are uttered without much though will send me running to my notebook and scribbling for the next thirty minutes. I still remember when my little brother dropped something down the stairs, which are hollow, and my mom said, "Down the shoot it goes!" Cause we have these boards that keep toys from falling under the stairs, and they slide along and come out at the bottom. And just that one sentence triggered the inspiration I needed to build the ENTIRE STINKING CULTURE of the kingdom my WIP takes place in.

this is just one of the many pages that sentence spurred

There are so many more instances I could recount. My WIP was inspired by a line from Megan Whalen Turner's The Thief when the Magus says to Gen, "Do you announce that you're going off to steal something before you start?" And then he hesitates and says, "Yes. You do. Well, I don't." And I halted and just kind of screamed for a few minutes as ideas flooded to me and then I wrote a scene that started the development of the book.

I'll move on now, before I go on a rant on that one sign in town that said, "We can fix tablets!" *zips lips to keep from going on*



Pinterest. Always Pinterest.

And also books. They usually do one of two things to me when I read them. One is that it draws me so completely and utterly into its grasp that I cannot function for the day that it takes me to read it, or the week following.

Two is that it makes me want to go and write. Sometimes this happens because the book is bad and I want to do better. (I know, I know. How arrogant of me.) But sometimes it's simply because the creativity of the author just oozes off the page and I want to create world building as intricate and fascinating as theirs, characters as deep and flawed, plots and unexpected and intricate.

Books are often what I turn to when I am stuck. That, or the sunset. Just sitting and watching a good sunset will set your mind up for brainstorming.




The shower. While I'm cleaning. When I'm driving. (Assuming this is the kind of inspiration that I don't get from books.) I like to stalk watch people go about their days and try to figure out what their stories are.

Ideas usually come when I'm out and about. I guess it's all the people. But when I leave the house, I'm usually leaving my writing behind. So it settles and pools in the back of my brain, and when I'm doing something like driving, I have plenty of time to be mulled over and struck with genius.

I also find that talking to another writer friend helps. I go to my cousin. Just the other day, I figured out how my WIP was going to end (mostly, at least) and all I did was mention to her that I had a new idea of how a certain scene could happen. And then as I explained further, it brought the rest of the ending falling into place.


Ahaha. Ehem. Well, if we're being honest here (I guess it was one of the rules ...) I stand with my mouth hanging open like a beached gold fish as my mind back flips and front flips and side flips and tries to figure out what just happened. Then I grab the nearest writing utensil and the nearest remotely writeable surface (paper, notebook, napkin, hand, table, receipt, etc.) and scribble furiously until I am satisfied I have all the essentials down.

If it's a book idea, I like to get on Natasha and create a new document for it in my "She's an Author" file. There are ... 42 book ideas in there right now. Not counting random characters.


There are so many good websites out there. And books. And songs. I think I'm going to choose a book for this question, and I think that book is going to have to be the Go Teen Writers book. This covers just about every step of the editing process. It challenges you with hard questions to ask about your story's characters, plot, structure, etc. It's just brilliant. I've read it and scanned it and referred to it countless times. It really gets the brain wheels turning.


Ask questions. That's the big thing. Stop and ask questions.

"What if ...?"

Just that simple question can trigger so many ideas.

Also, be open. Some ideas my seem ridiculous and stupid on first appearance, when really you just need to tweak them or look from a different angle to see how much potential they have. Don't be afraid to ask hard questions too. Things you might not want to think about. Explore. Be creative. We're writers, after all. ;)


And there you have it! My first tag ever. *happy smile* No pressure to do this if I tag you, but I'd love for you to participate! I'm going to tag 5 specific people, but if you liked it please please do it. <3




Please don't feel like you have to do this if I tagged you! And if I didn't, please join in! Put the link to your post in the comments so I'll be sure not to miss them! I'd love to read about what inspires you.

ALSO. Today I also put up my first post on Walking in the Light. (And you can take that both ways, cause it's on the blog Walking in the Light and it's about Walking in the Light) XP So, if you have time, I'd love for you to bop over and read it. It's on a topic very close to my heart. Hence, the blog.

What inspires you? 

So, my cousin and I decided to do something. Back in the day, when we were first starting out, we would mail each other copies of our chapters after we finished them. I haven't read everything my cousin, Elle, has written. But I've read a lot of it. Most of it first draft. Completely unedited.

I wanted to read her WIP, Delitescent. She told me I could ... but I had to hand over The Thief's Conspiracy. Draft one.

Great idea, right?

excuse me while i run die in a hole

That was my first reaction. But I have learned a lot since letting her read it. She started it last Friday and finished it on Sunday and ...

It was amazing.

Don't get me wrong - my first draft is horrible. But all first drafts are horrible. We both went into it expecting that.

So I said, right off the bat, that I wanted her to read it for fun. I wanted her to find the good stuff in it. Because I have a hard time seeing that when I'm reading my own work (and loads of other people probably do, too). I wanted to know what parts of draft one were good, meaningful. What she liked. What I should keep. She sent me notes through Pinterest messaging, which I copied into a word doc. I now have a whopping 15k masterpiece of mostly incoherent fangirling. (Yes, Elle. It's that long.)

I'm going to do another post on this later - we call it "encouragement reading" and it's amazing - but today I want to go to a specific instance that's happened to me while reading her first draft.

I was about 50k into it when I came to this scene with one of her MCs.

It wasn't short. It was a good 2k words long. It featured one of her MCs. The mean, hardcore, callous one that's way too fond of her pistols. She's got a strong western accent and does more insulting than breathing.

This scene was not an action scene. It was a quiet moment. This character, so tough and cruel at times, slipped away to visit a place she hadn't been to in several years. And on the walls were pictures.

Pictures she had painted.

There were only a few, and they featured people she had met in her life. People that had impacted her.

She meets an old woman coming down the alley, and when the woman offers her some paint to add to the "beautiful work" already there, this character can't refuse. And when the woman leaves, she takes up her brush and begins to paint.

This scene stopped me in my tracks.

Why? It wasn't heart stopping action. It wasn't a funny messing around scene.

No. It was just a moment. A strong one.

This character, who'd been so mean and even cruel the whole book, has a moment of vulnerability.

It's tempting to shove these types of scenes aside. They're not "entertaining" as we usually go for in books.

But they're deep. They're meaningful. In a book full of crazy twists and turns, a book whose action doesn't stop, just a moment of stillness can be more impacting than any other part of the story.

Moments of vulnerability are important for any character, but especially with those that force themselves into a mask or role. Characters who have to act a lot. Who are under pressure by other people, or are in a situation in life where they have to be someone they're not in order to cope. It's really important for these types of characters to have a moment of vulnerability.

That mask has to fall away at some point. And when it does, it bonds readers to the character even more.

I used to think of "moments of vulnerability" as scenes where the character snaps. Where the tears finally come, where the pressure building the entire book finally spills out.

But in this scene, the character did not cry. She didn't have an emotional break down. She didn't spill all her problems to the wind. She didn't even say a word. She just painted and thought and felt. She could have had a breakdown, sure. That's certainly how some people become vulnerable, but it would be totally out of character for her.

Your character doesn't have to cry or have a break down in order to be vulnerable. In this case, simply showing emotion and softness is a vulnerability, since she's so rough and tough and callous on the outside.

These moments are when you realize a character has been acting. And they're either very different, or sometimes completely opposite, of what they've been giving everyone the impression of.

Moments like this are powerful. Moments like this remind us of our humanity. That no one is exactly how they appear to be. Everyone has a part inside that remains hidden from the rest of the world. Some people might get glimpses of it, but no one will ever truly see it. When you're reading a book, when you're in a character's head, you can see it. You experience that vulnerability with them. And you'll connect on some level, because everyone has worn a mask at some point in their life. Some more than others, but still. Everyone has.

Everyone knows what it's like to try to be something you're not.

Moments like these bond us. They make the story come to life under our fingers. They make it live and breathe, and they make us feel.

Don't underestimate that.


I hope you enjoyed this post! Thank you, Elle, for letting me use your fabulous WIP as an example, and for inspiring this whole post in the first place. <3

I also have an announcement! *clears throat* I am a Christian, as most of you know. (hopefully) And I've been thinking about starting a Christian blog for some time now. This is technically a writing blog, and I wanted to keep it that way so I wouldn't come off as preachy to any non-Christians that liked my writerly advice. I wasn't sure if I could handle two blog by myself, however, so I called upon my friend Carlyn Ross and she volunteered to co-blog with me! Today she kicked it off with a lovely post about what she's going to be studying this year, and I'll be posting next week about why our blog is named what it is, and what I plan to be blogging about in the future.

Please bop over and read Carlyn's first post!

Do you have a moment of vulnerability in your WIP? Care to share? *sly grin*

Last January was when I finally started to study the bible for myself. It took some time to find a rythym of how studying the bible really worked for me, but every step of the process brought insight, development, and growth. I am not the person who started this year. I am much older, deeper, and I'd like to think wiser. And I definitely know God on a deeper level than ever before.



I started draft two of The Thief's Conspiracy in February and I still haven't finished it. It's taken me so long to make progress, in part because this is a new step for me in my writing journey. And it's still taking me a lot of time to understand that editing is not a fast process like first drafting. It takes time, and it is agonizing.


I also started a blog last February. And in doing that, I've realized just how much I enjoy it. It's a way for me to sort out my thoughts and share what I have learned with you all. And I am so glad I started it. The whole blogging community is amazing.



Growing takes a lot of time. A lot of things take a lot of time.


Which might sound kind of insulting at first, and rather dismal, but is actually a really good thing. Imagine if the world really was all about you? Every little flaw you had would be magnified, every mistake you made like a declaration of war in its importance. You couldn't rest!

Problems that chew you up and spit you out, that grind on your every waking thought, often lose their deathly, crushing hold once you step back and realize that life really isn't all centered around you. Other people exist, too. And a big part of our life here on earth is to help others.

Once you step back and appreciate that the world is bigger, that you are small, the problems that seemed so big before dwindle. Your priorities might become reorganized.


There are a lot of lies that I struggled with this year. Lies I believed about myself, about others, about what others thought of me, etc. And I knew a lot of them were lies. But still, I couldn't overcome them.

It's so much bigger than that though. These aren't things you just "get over". You have to learn why they're there and figure out the truth to them. Realizing a lie is a lie just isn't good enough. Until you've gotten a hold of the firm, solid, undeniable truth, the lies slip and lose their hold.


My best friend moved 1,652 miles away back in March. Half my closest friends live states away from me. Most of my childhood friends left for college in August. The distance makes things harder, certainly, but not impossible. Relationships may change, but you can still grow through it. Don't give up your long distance friends. They're golden.





(good luck making sense of this one)

For some reason, I had it in my little brain that most of my writer friends suddenly didn't like me very much at all, and that I was an annoying nuisance (in essence). I'm really not sure where these thoughts and fears came from, but when my writer friends surprised me with a laptop, I couldn't exactly hold to those beliefs.

Just because you think/feel something doesn't mean it's the truth.


Before the workshop in June, I wasn't sure if I really stood a chance at being an author. I wasn't even sure if I was good enough. But the authors there all believed in us. You could see it in every class, every panel, every keynote. They believed in us. They knew we could do it, that we had what it takes.

I learned that I'm not actually bad at writing. I've still got a long way to go, but I've already come really far. Which leads to number ...


It takes time. It takes growth. Every single step and stage has something to offer, some lesson to teach you. Stop concentrating on what you don't have and look for what you do, and what you can learn.

This is a theme I've seen in this post so far that's going to get ZERO editing because I'm writing it at 1 A.M. Friday night with burning eyes and sleep calling my name so it must be a good point

This day and age is so rushed. We don't know how much time we have here, after all. How can we stand to wait? But growth takes time. And life is all about growing and changing and learning and discovering. But these things take time. Remember that.


Prayer gives you perspective.


I don't know about you guys, but that's when I feel most alone. Not at home in my room at night. When I'm at Church or a devo, surrounded by my peers with people who are only kind of my friends. It's okay to feel alone when surrounded by people. Just make sure you have real friends out there, even if they're a thousand miles away.


Don't let things just happen by accident. Don't just go about accidentally doing things. Do things. Mean things. Think about stuff. Don't be afraid to explore. Don't hold back. We've only got so much time, after all. And things take time. So be bold and decide what you want to do and who you want to be.

You will become the person you want and strive to be, after all. Make sure that person is the right one.


And the last thing I will share with you today, the last lesson on my list is this.


Life is all about heart. Where is your heart?

It doesn't matter what you do. It doesn't matter how bad or how good you are. It doesn't matter if you helped the old lady with her groceries or treated your siblings nicely.

What matters is where your heart is.

Because once you get your heart in the right place, then these things will be the obvious course of action. Before getting your heart right, these actions are pointless and empty. When you get your heart in the right place, doing the right thing will become a part of you. And when you mess up, it's okay. Because you still tried to do the right thing.


There's so much more I want to say. But that's what Stan here is for, right? XP I'll be back again next week to blab. But I hope you enjoyed this post!

What did you learn this year?